catlover

I have a 1994 Mercury Grand Marques LS and when it rains really hard with a high wind I get water on the floor of the rear and front passenger side floor. There is usually about 2 inches of water or more but the door and the seats are never wet. My aunt has a 93 crown vic with the same problems and we can't figure out where the water is coming from, any one out there have this problem and know what is causing it and can help would be greatly appriciated. My mechanic can't figure it out and everyone else is at a loss as to what may be causing this.
thank you
catlover

Nathan in MN

I assume you (or your mechanic) have tried spraying the car with a hose with somebody inside it to see if there's anything obvious? That usually helps to trace stuff down.

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Lambykin

Wow - my family owned a 1975 Lincoln Continental when I was a kid. Christmas of 1982 was a very green one, and it rained heavily Christmas Eve. I'll never forget it, because my sister stepped into the car and was in almost a foot of water (Lincolns of the 70s had deep foot wells). Like your scenario, the seats weren't wet.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, I know it sounds like spraying the car to try to find the solution sounds like a good one, but you will have a LOT of trouble trying to find the problem. A hose isn't going to emulate mother nature. I say this because my father spent the summer of '83 hosing down that Lincoln (evidentally, the leak was on the passenger side as well) with gallons upon gallons of water. He'd use a sharp stream, and a gentle spray - still no luck. I believe the leak was found by accident one fall morning a year later when there was a similar rain storm. If I recall correctly, rain was getting behind one of the chrome trim pieces, passing through to the inside of the car, and flowing down a pillar into the rear foot well. It wasn't a door or window seal as first suspected.

Unfortunately, none of this is going to help you as there is nothing similar in design to either cars. However, I will offer this advice - pay particular attention to the trim pieces - there's a possibility a similar situation exists where water is getting behind some trim, by-passing window & door seals, and finding it's way into the interior of the car. As for why the car leaks when it rains a particular way, yet is bone dry when you use a hose - only mother nature can answer that. Good luck - hopefully you find the leak...

greenmerc

Search the sitefor this issue. It's comman to our cars, and almost always can be traced to one of the many holes in the firewall.

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SeaBass

If you pull the hood cowl (grill under the wipers) You will see a fresh air vent on the passenger side with a screen over it. There is a big foam gasket under that screen that can go bad (real bad). When this happens instead flowing around this raised up inlet the water pours right in and leaks out the seam in the fresh air duct up by the passenger kick panel. It drips under the carpet and pools up in the rear passenger floor. 2 inches easy when it rains real hard. If you pull up the passenger side carpet and spray the car you should be able to find generally where the water is coming in. If its out of that black plastic duct up near the kick panel its probably the seal I mentioned. Or you could just check the seal on that inlet. The flange was warped on mine so I had to use way more RTV than I would have liked to use to seal it. Good Luck.

mech8251

I have a 94 Gm with the same problem. I also found the cold air duct to be the problem. Ford does not sell this gasket alone. They want almost $70 for the entire duct, I as well put way more RTV on and around it as well.

wildwalnut

I have had the same problem on a 96 Marquis, water leaks on passenger front floor and eventually to rear floor. I removed plastic cowl cover on passenger side as suggested. I found the screened cover over the fresh air intake and removed same. I found the foam rubber gasket under this screened assemble was hard brittle and broken up. I went to ford dealer and was told ford had 13 of the gaskets available in their main parts house (some where back east) and it would take a week to get it. I made my own gasket from some window door sealer I found in a hardware store. I double checked the intake box "drain" by pouring water into the box and making sure the water drained away before I put the screen back on. The box is made such that air goes into the box and then passes through the side of the box through a door that opens and closes by the controls. But the box is deep so that if water also get into it, the water will collect in the bottom and drain out a tube behind the front tire. I put everything back together and I'm hoping that solves it. There is one thing I noticed that still bothers me though. That is when water runs down the windshield and onto the cowl cover it is sloped in that area to a grated area that then dumps the water right down into that intake box. That seems like a real bad design.